Tracking Form Errors (Part 2)

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In my last post, I started the process of identifying which form fields were producing the most errors. In this post, I will cover some related topics that will allow you to quantify how often you are getting Form Errors and how effective, in general, your forms are at converting website visitors.

How Many Form Errors Are You Producing?While the solution I identified in my last post showed which form fields had more errors than others, in the web analytics space, we like hard, concrete numbers! Therefore, I would recommend that you set a Success Event each time website visitors encounter at least one form error (assuming you do validation when the Form Submit button is clicked). By setting a Success Event, you will have a nice chart that shows you the overall trend of Form Errors as shown here:

If you are passing a Name or ID for each form you have on your website, you can also use this Success Event to see which forms are getting the most number of errors like this:

In addition, you can set an Alert for the overall Form Error metric or for a specific Form Name/ID:

How Is Each Form Doing?While knowing how many Errors a form gets is cool, as is often the case, we in the web analytics field care more about ratios! In the report above, it is alarming to see that the first form had 85 Form Errors but how do we know if that is good or bad? If we create a Calculated Metric to compare Form Errors to Form Views, we can see how many Form Errors visitors had in relation to each time the same Form was viewed. Based upon the data below, we can see a wide range of Form Error percentages depending upon the form:

Some of these percentages are quite high and represent amazing opportunities to do testing to see if they can be improved! In addition, when you create a calculated metric, besides just seeing it in an eVar report like the one above, you can also see it as a standalone metric. This means that you can see the overall trend of Form Errors per Form View (or Visit) to see if we are getting better or worse over time. This might make a great KPI metric for the team focused on Forms and Form Completions:

Final ThoughtsIn my last post I covered a simple way to see which fields are causing problems for your visitors. In this post, I showed you how to quantify your Form Errors, see how much of an issue you may have and even see which Forms have the most Errors. In my next post I will show you some advanced ways to see which fields are causing errors and how to break this down by Form. Stay tuned!

Between this post and the last post, hopefully you have some food for thought when it comes to tracking how your website forms are doing so you improve your conversion rates…

Adam Greco is a longstanding member of the web analytics community who has consulted with hundreds of clients across every industry vertical. Adam has managed the Adobe Analytics programs at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Salesforce.com. As one of the founders of the Omniture (now Adobe) Consulting group, Adam managed accounts large and small and helped clients maximize their use of Adobe Analytics technologies directly and indirectly through his extensive blogging. In 2012, in partnership with Adobe, Adam published the first-ever book on Adobe Analytics – The Adobe SiteCatalyst Handbook: An Insider’s Guide. In 2015, Adam was elected to the board of directors of the Digital Analytics Association (DAA) where he now serves as Treasurer.
As an employee of Analytics Demystified Adam is a member of the Digital Analytics Association (DAA), an Adobe Business Partner, and a Google Analytics Certified Partner. Adam is also a Board Advisor at the Digital Analytics Association (DAA), Snowplow Analytics, ISDI Digital University, Claravine, Beringer Capital and Decibel Insight.